LogFAQs > #885699158

helIy posted...

fifty.

thousand.

years.

HOW IS TWILIGHT GOING TO SURVIVE FIFTY THOUSAND YEARS IN THE DIRT BUT SOMEHOW ALSO BE READABLE AND PERFECTLY PRESERVED FOR PEOPLE WHO SOMEHOW SPEAK A 50,000 YEAR OLD DIALECT OF A 50,000 YEAR OLD LANGUAGE?

Here, really simple. Here is an example of 800 year old English;
http://www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/hel/chron.html

Can you read it without the translation?

The oldest book we have is around 2,500 years. Books decompose over time. In a landfill, paper only takes a few weeks to decompose. Some pests (like silverfish) eat books. Without us keeping them safe and tidy, they would be broken down long before 50,000 years. If you are still understanding that paper deteriorates over time, read this;
https://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/deterioratebrochure.html

It doesn't matter if it's 50,000 or 500,000 years, after a certain point, paperback books are going to decompose. If there are people around to preserve them, however, they also will know what they are, and there would be no reason for confusion.

Either they survive because we let them (resulting in us knowing exactly what they are) or they rot because we can't take care of them, in which case there will be no books to dig up. Even if it reduced us to the 'stone age' (which is stupid in itself because we wouldn't instantly lose all knowledge because survival became tougher), it wouldn't make sense that language would stop evolving for 50,000 years to the point where you could pick up a 50,000 year old book and read it.